the middle of a quick week.

This week is flying by.
I think it has something to do with
Halloween being on Monday,
and the kids being out of school on Tuesday.

Today I mourned the fact that my
honey apple butter jar from Trader Joe's
is empty.

That stuff is gooooooood.
Put it on your TJ's list, for sure.

I cooked a batch of spaghetti sauce
in my craft weekend apron.

We had spaghetti and baby carrots for dinner.
Ha!
So gourmet.

I supervised the annual preschool turkey project.
It's the last one I'll ever help make.
{big sad face}

I've been meaning to show you my most favorite color in my house.
This is my needs-something-on-the-wall laundry room.
The color is Acapulco Aqua, by Kelly Moore.

I love it so much.

Or...lo me encanta tanto.
{i felt like i should say it in spanish too, because of the whole acapulco thing.}


Tomorrow the temperature is supposed to drop twenty degrees.
I plan to celebrate by having tomato soup and croutons for lunch
and spending the day in Uggs.
I'm pretty excited about it.
:)

cork boards: my craft weekend contribution.

I didn't want to show up to craft weekend empty-handed.
So I took my plethora of burlap and some embroidery hoops and went to town.

I gave you a little sneak peek in this picture from a couple of weeks ago.
I made for each one of the ladies at craft weekend.

All you need is an embroidery hoop, some cork (from any craft store),
some burlap (or fabric, if you prefer), craft paint, and letter stamps.
And your glue gun, of course.
{What did we ever do before the glue gun was invented?  I shudder to think.}

I painted some of the hoops I took to craft weekend,
and then realized that maybe not everyone is as partial to aqua paint as I am.
So I left most of them unpainted.

But I painted the one I made for myself with 'Bahama Blue' craft paint.
After it dried, I cut out the cork to fit the inner circle of my hoop.

Then I cut a piece of burlap just slightly bigger than my hoop,
and put it inside.

The back doesn't have to be pretty.
Just hot glue down the excess.

Stamp whatever letter you choose.
You could even do an ampersand or no stamp at all.

That's it!
Then you can hang it on the very cluttered wall in your craft room
that you keep meaning to paint, organize, and rearrange.

And if embroidery hoops aren't your thang,
you could do the same process as above in a picture frame.

Ugh.  Paint chips.
The never-ending wall paint selection process continues....
{dining room.  martini shaker.  thoughts?}

the craft weekend finale.

The last morning of craft weekend we woke up to more goodies.

Loved it all!
I've got to find the right place for that print.

That last morning we all finished up our projects,
and got busy taking pictures.
Ashley and Meg make it look very easy.

That morning I sat on the porch for awhile,
just thinking about what a great weekend it was.

It was a creative inspiration,
which I knew it would be.

But I didn't know I would meet some amazing women in the midst of the creative.
Not only Meg, Kimberlee, and Ashley,
but also
Kate {i've read her blog for awhile, and she is the nicest person.  and she's an aggie, too.  whoop!}
Crystal {my fellow california girl.  so creative.  we spent some quality hours together at the airport.}
Melissa {she lives in colorado, and is so sweet.  and she has the cutest little girl.}
Amy {she is hilarious, and has the best southern accent.  you can't not like this girl.}
and all of the other great girls, who don't have blogs.  I wish they did.

And after some goodbyes,
and some see you soons,
it was time to head to the airport for a super-crazy day of 9/11 travel.

I followed the moon to Houston, and then back home.

I'm looking forward to seeing Meg, Kimberlee, Kate and Crystal
again this weekend at Blog Sugar.
{hooray!}
And, rumor has it, there may possibly be a craft weekend reunion in the works.
{hooray again!}

One more craft weekend-related post to come....

saturday in kansas.

On the second morning of craft weekend
we woke up with instructions to be awesome.

Such cute little treats to start off the day.
Every day there were more goodies.
Fun, fun goodies.

After a cup {or two} of coffee we loaded into the big ol' van
and headed out to shop.

First stop: the antique store.

This store had some amazing old quilts!

{i still think you should go back for it, meg.}

Meg told us this store the most organized antique store ever.

She was so right.

My only purchase was a vintage book I had as a kid.

Then we headed to the Barn.

It is chock full of good stuff.

I think Crystal and I were tempted to rent a truck and drive a few things back to California. :)

We left the barn in time to hit happy hour.

{one diet cherry limeade and tots, please.}

The view across from Sonic.

Kansas is so flat!

It's strange to not see any mountains anywhere.

After another fantastic dinner and dessert prepared by Kimberlee,

it was back to crafting.

That evening we made pillows and necklaces.

{and had coffee...round two.}

Ashley helped us with the necklaces.

She is so creative it's unbelievable.

This is what I came up with.

The other ladies made beautiful necklaces as well.

I'll tell you more about those ladies tomorrow.

They were pretty great, too.

home from craft weekend.

 

This weekend I hopped on a plane to Kansas
and headed to Meg's Craft Weekend.
I was a little nervous about flying...
nervous about leaving the kids...
but I wasn't nervous at all about meeting Meg or Kimberlee
or the weekend itself.

And I had no reason to be.
It was fantastic.

If you read Meg's blog you think you get a sense of who she is.
And you do.
She's real and funny and down-to-earth and insanely creative.
And Kimberlee is genuine and kind and makes a mean dessert.
They're both just lovely.
As are the eleven other women that were there.  Truly.

Here's a little bit of day one.

The house:
adorable.

The way Meg and Kimberlee decorated the house:
beyond adorable.

And Friday evening, our first craft:

aprons!

Some of us knew how to sew,
and some had a major case of fabric-a-phobia.
But I'm pretty sure everyone conquered that phobia.
Hello...adorable aprons, all of them!

Here's mine.
To be used next weekend at the craft fair.
:)

But seriously.
How can you not be creative in this workspace?

After an amazing dinner and dessert,
we stayed up late making aprons
and making new friendships
and discussing such important matters
as the benefit of bras with cell phone pockets.

It was a good, good day.

{much more tomorrow....}

insta friday - almost friday edition

It's Thursday,
but my brain is already in Friday,
so here is some of our week in Instagram.

Last Saturday started with a tray of Ikea cinnamon rolls.
I'm not sure what's better: Ikea meatballs or these.

I'm going to say these.
Yum.

Also Saturday:

I think I perfected the sideways braid.
Thank you, pinterest.
But then I tried to do my own hair this way, just for fun.
Um...not the same result.
I think I need another hand?

I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with Togo's,
but I'd take them over Subway any old day.

This is the sign that greets you at the beginning of the hike
to the top of Mt. Tamalpais.

The sign recommends giving rattlesnakes distance.
No. Problem.

Tuesday, our low-key day, allows for a little front porch sitting.
Until homework has to be the killjoy.
Boo.

And Avery finally decided to ditch the tricycle for her big bike.
I am not a fan of this whole kids "growing up" thing.

And I'm feeling extra sentimental tonight since I'm leaving them this weekend.
I'm heading to SFO early tomorrow morning.
There's some cheesecake and crafting waiting for me in Kansas.

I'll be back next week to tell you all about it.

linking up with jeannett.